Best Gas Furnaces of - Reviews of Top Furnace Brands | Top Ten Reviews

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Excellent Durability: Independent testing company Consumer Reports found that 77 percent of the time that furnaces failed, the repair was costly ($+) and the furnace was out of commission for a day or more. Reliable furnaces break down less often over the course of their lifetime. York, however, stands out as the least reliable brand and cannot be recommended by Consumer Reports at this time. That’s what we found based on the feedback of 21, subscribers, who reported. In Consumer Reports’ study on breakdown rates among major gas furnace manufacturers, Trane and its sister company American Standard came in at an impressive 9% — second only to Ruud at 8%. This means that 91% of Trane furnaces made it through the first Author: Joe Supan.

Best Gas Furnace Buying Guide - Consumer Reports

Replacing the old furnace in your central heating system with a new, more efficient model can offset volatile energy prices. Money aside, today's furnaces pollute less and boost comfort by producing heat more steadily than older furnaces. Gas is the most common heating fuel and this report focuses on gas furnaces. How do most people go about buying a furnace? First, they call contractors and ask for estimates. To prepare this report, we did too.

More than specialists in residential heating and air conditioning told us about their experiences in installing and maintaining heating equipment.

Size Matters The furnace's specifications should fit your needs. A furnace that's too small won't keep your house comfortable during extremely-cold weather. Partly to avoid that possibility, consumer reports furnaces, the furnaces in most homes are larger than necessary. Initial cost is only one of the drawbacks of that strategy. A furnace that's too large will cycle on and off more frequently.

That puts more wear on its components, wastes energy, and might cause the temperature to vary uncomfortably. Also, a larger replacement furnace might require larger ducts. Without the right size ducts, airflow can be noisy. To be sure of correct sizing and a proper installation, choose a reputable contractor who will take the time to calculate your heating needs according to an industry standard such as in "Manual J HVAC Residential Load Calculation" of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America.

Such calculations take into account the climate and the size, design, and construction of your house. Once the furnace is installed, maintain it regularly according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Our survey helped to confirm this advice.

When we asked about the most common reasons for service calls for furnaces, consumer reports furnaces, contractors cited human error, inadequate maintenance, for example, or improper installation, consumer reports furnaces, twice as often as defective equipment, consumer reports furnaces.

Read our frequency of repair report for which brands or the most and least reliable. Efficiency Also Matters Gas is currently the most common heating fuel and most new central-heating systems use gas.

How efficiently a furnace converts gas into consumer reports furnaces energy is reflected in its annual fuel-utilization-efficiency AFUE rating, which is measured as a percentage. The higher the number, the more heat the furnace can wring from each therm of gas, consumer reports furnaces.

Since efficient furnaces generate fewer emissions, environmental considerations might also influence your decision. Furnaces have become more energy-efficient over the years. A gas furnace made in the early s typically has an AFUE of about 65 percent. The lowest efficiency allowed by law for new gas furnaces is 78 percent, and some new models achieve 97 percent, near-total efficiency, consumer reports furnaces.

The price of a furnace generally rises in step with its fuel efficiency. But you can often recoup that additional cost through lower fuel bills over the life of the furnace, especially in regions such as the Northeast and Midwest, consumer reports furnaces, where winters can be harsh. How quickly you recover the investment depends on more than just AFUE. The electricity to run furnaces with different AFUEs can vary significantly. The climate where you live, how well your home is insulated, consumer reports furnaces your local gas and electricity rates also affect payback times.

As you decide, insist that the contractor select models in a range of efficiencies and calculate the annual estimated operating cost of each model you're considering, rather than simply estimating it. The contractor can complete those calculations by plugging information on each unit's AFUE and electrical consumption, local utility rates, and characteristics of your home into one of several computer programs designed to easily calculate estimates.

Make sure that the quotes also include the cost of any changes to venting required by any appliances in the home. Other questions to ask the contractor: Is the model you're considering fairly new, consumer reports furnaces, introduced, say, two years ago or less, and thus relatively untested? If it's an older model, has the contractor noticed any reliability problems with it?

You can make your home more energy-efficient in several ways. Turn down the thermostat in winter; just two degrees cooler will save you money and reduce emissions by about 6 percent.

You might not even feel the difference, especially at night or consumer reports furnaces you're out of the house—a programmable thermostat can help here. Draw the curtains at night to block the chill from a cold window. Keep the windows covered on sunny days during the summer, and uncover them on sunny days during the winter to benefit from some free solar heating. Reduce heat loss from ducts by sealing leaks and, where feasible, insulating ducts.

Repair or Replace? If your gas furnace falters or fails, a few simple procedures may save you the cost and trouble of seeking professional help:. For an electronic thermostat consumer reports furnaces runs on batteries, try changing them. If so, consumer reports furnaces, power may have been cut to the fan or circuit board. If those steps don't work, call a heating contractor. Despite the improved efficiency of most new furnaces, consumer reports furnaces, it's generally more cost-effective to repair a furnace than to replace it.

However, if a key component such as the heat exchanger or control module fails, you're probably better off consumer reports furnaces the furnace, especially if the unit is more than about 15 years old. Furnaces typically last an average of 15 to 18 years. Less than 20 percent of any of furnace brands we surveyed in are likely to experience a break by the third year of ownership. Each brand of furnace offers a similar array of key features, depending on price. The furnace features most often highlighted in product literature and sales pitches are generally the ones found on the higher-efficiency models, but some consumer reports furnaces also offer them on premium versions of low-efficiency furnaces.

Variable-Speed Blowers These can deliver air slower, while often consumer reports furnaces less noise, when less heat is needed. That produces fewer drafts and uncomfortable swings in temperature.

Variable Heat Output Available on some furnaces that have a variable-speed blower, this feature can increase efficiency and comfort by automatically varying the amount of heat the furnace delivers, usually between two levels.

The furnace can thus deliver heat more continuously than could one with a fixed heat output. Air Filtration Fitting a furnace with an electrostatic filter, which uses an electrical charge to help trap particles, or a high-efficiency particulate-arresting HEPA filter can reduce the amount of dust blown through the heating system.

That might help people with asthma or other chronic lung diseases, but there's little evidence that other people need such filtration. Dual Heat Exchanger Heat exchangers are the components that draw heat from the burned gas. To draw more heat from the air they burn, energy-efficient furnaces supplement the primary exchanger with a second exchanger, consumer reports furnaces. Because the exhaust gases in that second exchanger might yield a corrosive acidic consumer reports furnaces, the second exchanger is made of stainless steel, lined with plastic, or otherwise protected.

Ignition System Fewer and fewer furnaces have a pilot light—a flame that burns continuously, awaiting the next command to ignite the burners. Furnaces with intermittent, direct spark, or hot-surface ignition do away with the constant pilot light in various ways.

That increases efficiency and is usually reflected in a furnace's higher AFUE rating. Zoned Heating This feature uses a number of thermostats, a sophisticated central controller, and a series of dampers that control airflow to deliver different amounts of heating or cooling to different parts of the home.

The larger the home, as a rule, the more useful zoning is. That's especially true if sections of the home have different heating or cooling requirements, because of wide variations in the number or type of windows, for example.

But contractors we interviewed said that furnaces connected to zoned ductwork generally require more repair. Warranty Basic, usually low efficiency, furnaces often have a shorter warranty than their premium counterparts, consumer reports furnaces. To heat your home and hot water, you can choose from among several energy sources. But gas is currently the most common heating fuel—most new central-heating systems use gas. Heat Pumps Heat pumps that wring heat from outdoor air and reverse the process in summer to act as an air conditioner are inexpensive to install as an alternative to a cooling-only air-conditioning system, consumer reports furnaces.

That makes them the preferred way to heat in the South and Southwest, where winters are typically short and mild. Heat pumps that wring heat from the ground are much more expensive to install, but they are suitable for cold climates because they can maintain their operating efficiency.

Other inexpensive electric-heat options include strip heaters, which are installed in the ductwork of central air conditioning, and permanently installed baseboard units in each room. But before you consider any type of consumer reports furnaces central heating in colder regions, keep in mind that electricity rates are much higher than those for natural gas and are likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future. You can get rate information for various fuels from local utilities and suppliers.

Oil Furnaces These venerable models still retain a niche in older homes, mostly in the Northeast. We respect your privacy. All email addresses you provide will be used just for sending this story. Become a Member. Sign In. Remember Me. Not a member? Need further assistance? Please call Consumer reports furnaces Services at Join Consumer Reports. Already a member? Welcome to Consumer Reports.

You now have access to benefits that can help you choose right, be safe and stay informed. Get Started, consumer reports furnaces. Gas furnaces. Sign in or Become a Member. Gas Furnace Buying Guide. Last updated: September 16, What We Found How do most people go about buying a furnace?

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Furnace Ratings by Brand:

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In Consumer Reports’ study on breakdown rates among major gas furnace manufacturers, Trane and its sister company American Standard came in at an impressive 9% — second only to Ruud at 8%. This means that 91% of Trane furnaces made it through the first Author: Joe Supan. Excellent Durability: Independent testing company Consumer Reports found that 77 percent of the time that furnaces failed, the repair was costly ($+) and the furnace was out of commission for a day or more. Reliable furnaces break down less often over the course of their lifetime. Some gas furnaces are more reliable than others. Here are the most and least repair-prone brands, according to a survey from Consumer Reports.